PTI, GDA accuse PPP of using govt machinery to win NA-205 by-election

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) on Saturday accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the ruling party of Sindh, of using government machinery to support its candidate in the NA-205 Ghotki by-election.

The seat had fallen vacant in May after Ali Mohammad Mahar, the federal minister for narcotics control, died of a heart attack. The by-election for the seat has been scheduled for July 18.

Analysts are expecting tough competition in the constituency as Ahmad Ali Mahar, son of the late Ali Mohammad, is contesting as an independent candidate like his father who, however, later joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after winning the July 2018 polls as an independent candidate.

Ali Mohammad also enjoys support of the PTI and the GDA which have not fielded their candidates for the by-election.

The PPP has awarded its ticket to Mohammad Bux Mahar who was elected to the Sindh Assembly on the PPP ticket from PS-8 Ghotki in the 2013 and 2018 general elections.

The PTI parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Shaikh, and GDA Secretary General Ayaz Latif Palijo, in separate statements, have accused the Sindh chief minister of employing government machinery in favour of the PPP candidate.

In his statement, Shaikh asked if the PPP candidate was the same who had illegally occupied 2,000 acres of the federal government land. “When an inquiry is made into this occupied land, the concerned Mukhtiarkar is disappeared. When Commissioner Sukkur Rafiq Buriro is issuing a show-cause notice, he is transferred,” the PTI leader alleged, adding that the provincial government was exerting its authority to influence the by-poll.

Criticising the PPP’s rally in Sukkur, Shaikh said a dinner was hosted in Sukkur a day earlier by Nasir Hussain Shah, who had recently resigned as provincial minister, which was attended by PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the Sindh chief minister, after which the PPP held its rally in the area.

The PTI leader said inviting the PPP NA-205 candidate to the dinner was a violation of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) code of conduct but the ECP did not take any notice of it.

He added that the PPP was staging a march from Sukkur to the border of Punjab and it would also pass through the NA-205 constituency.

Shaikh said it would have been much better had the PPP rally visited the AIDS-hit Larkana and the hunger-hit Thar where children had been dying of malnutrition and diseases.

He said the PPP should also hold a rally in Badin where there was an acute water shortage. He demanded of the ECP to take notice of the breach of its code by Bilawal, the CM and other PPP leaders.

Meanwhile, Palijo, in his statement, said the PPP was using the government machinery to campaign for its candidate. He alleged that government officials affiliated with the PPP were involved in campaigning against rival candidates and intimidating workers of the opposition parties before the upcoming by-poll.

“The PPP has been weakened mainly because of its organisational crisis and now they are compelled to use its chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh chief minister and provincial governmental machinery in the by-poll,” said Palijo, who also heads the Qaumi Awami Tehreek.

He demanded that the ECP stop the PPP from using government machinery and intimidating rival candidates before the by-election as it was pre-poll rigging.